Raoul

I've got a box of lightly used in various wattages. Make me a price

Yes it was within the 12 month period.

I purchased an M4 clone from these guys last year. Sunday at the range the reticle "slipped" and the scope could not be adjusted. When I got home I emailed PA. Sunday evening I received a reply and on Monday I had an RMA. I shipped it Monday, they received it Thursday and they shipped a replacement Thursday afternoon. That's the way to do business.

As I've said before, there's a reason it's named Dicks

I think that lots of good points are made in this thread. Some of it has been made personal, or at least was taken as being so, myself included. I get angry because I know how hard a good teacher has to work to do their job. A good teacher is rarely supported by their administration or school board because both groups have a political agenda. Parent cooperation and support is minimal. At least in my wife's school, the population is the lowest performing group in the system with parents who aren't even able to help second graders with their homework. The kids usually have unstable home environments. They get no support, sometimes haven't eaten anything substantive over the weekend, and may have been allowed to stay up all night watching horror movies. You've got kids on meds, mothers with a new "uncle" in the house every few months, mothers going to jail, kids that move every few months, and some parent that don't even care to get them to school. How the hell does a school address all these issues? What's a fair way to rate a teacher that works in a school like that? I know that these are the fears that teachers have. What they're asked to do and what they do to help their students is often above and beyond what should be expected. I don't think most good teachers are particularly "good union people". The reality is that they have no other option at this time to offer them any protection within the system. I whole heartedly agree that there are people in education that shouldn't be there. My concern is that the rhetoric is painting the whole profession as a group that is entitled. I just don't think this is the reality. The other thing I see is that all of us who work for a living are stressed. We're being asked to do more, work more and put up with more crap than is realistic. Between more damn taxes, more regulations, and companies desire for higher profits to satisfy Wall St the average working stiff has just about been squeezed into poverty. Free market capitalism is a great theory as long as the playing field is level for all groups. Based on the tax structure and regulation I'm not sure that's the case, and unions have certainly proven that they're just as susceptible to corruption as big business. If I've made anybody angry please accept my apology.

It's a little testy on forums too...

If I could move I wouldn't need to shoot.

This.

I just take a tarp with me.

Here's a big part of the problem with education, and I don't just mean the salary.

So how little are you willing to work for? If you're competing with a laborer in a country where $2.00 a day is typical...I'm just saying. The only reset I see going on is a downward trend. But I notice that prices and cost of living in general are not declining. I live pretty modestly, no giant house or new cars, but if the trend continues to it's logical global conclusion we're all gonna meet at the bottom. And like it or not that's good old fashioned socialism disguised as capitalism.

Yeah, one finger you can live with, but all five is a pain.

Yes. This is the major problem as I see it. As a self employed idiot, the amount of my income I am forced to contribute to federal coffers is pushing 30%. Add to that my cost of doing business such as licenses etc, and I only actually net about 60-62% of my gross income. So my contribution to the system is 40% of my income.

Not really. In my business I have clients that have outsourced their CSR ordering system and help desk. Those jobs were not union to begin with. Now I get calls from people who have totally no clue what they asking about and often speak english so poorly I have to ask them to spell words or hope they can escalate it up to someone who only speaks really crappy english. Capital follows cheap labor. If you don't want to support American workers it's certainly your right. Sure will be interesting when we finally go to war with China and we still have to buy steel from them.

Unless they outsource it to India.

If it makes you feel any better I have the same thoughts. This teacher thing is nothing more than a distraction from the big picture.

We can hope. Invariably if you put one human in a superior position to another human you cause a problem. It seems hopless at times. But on the plus side i just paid three dollars and eight freaking cents a gallon for gas to help keep the saudis in power. Makes me feel good all over.

My experience with those is that they're great shooters.

If only it were that simple. Politics screws that up. School boards, administration, city councils and funding. Education is a mess. How do you apply free market principles to something as political as education? Saying the free market will fix it is just too simplistic. No offense meant. I'm not sure that is a real honest answer.

+1

my pleasure

Until you get the parents of that 47% that lives on a "check" involved in the education of their children you can forget it. They are not the only issue either. Parents don't discipline their kids. parents don't expect anything from their kids. If you expect nothing you get nothing. Schools cannot truly discipline kids. Why should they give a .

True. back in the 70's when I was schlepping around Italy gas was going for about 2.50/gal based on the exchange rate. However I never drove a car. It was all trains.

Agreed.